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Chilifest Donates Over $200,000

In its 27th year, Chilifest presented checks Friday totaling more than $200,000 to 41 local nonprofits following another successful music festival.

This year’s event featured both cold temperatures and hot performances from county musicians such as headliner Chris Young, Casey Donahew, Bri Bagwell and more.

“This is kind of one of the most important parts about Chilifest,” said Robert Cary, president of Chilifest. “In my mind, actually the most important. Chilifest is a lot of fun and we do a lot of different things throughout the year, but this is the one that gives the whole event a lot of meaning.”

One of the largest beneficiaries was the Texas A&M Foundation endowment for the creation of a scholarship in the name of the music festival.

“This is something that we’ve been working on for a couple of years now. We’re very excited for this year to be the year that we were able to get this done,” Cary said. “We hope that Chilifest continues for many many years, but this will go on forever. This is an endowment through the Texas A&M Foundation and this will provide a scholarship every single year to a handful of students, from now until forever.”

Burleson County Go Texan Association, which provides scholarships for students living in Burleson County, also received $25,000.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Brazos Valley received $15,000 and Coach Blair Charities received $10,000 in donations.

The recent event is officially the largest Chilifest on record with 37,000 people attending the two-day music festival, giving the organization the opportunity to provide donations no smaller than $1,000 to 41 local nonprofits.